May 19th, 2013

YouTube Turns Eight As Platform Surpasses More Than 100 Hours Of Video Uploaded Per Minute

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YouTube turns eight years old today, reminding each of us in some odd way how young or old we really are. Remember, the company launched back in 2005, the same year that Michael Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation, and Lance Armstrong was winning his seventh Tours De France, and Arrested Development was still on the air.

A lot has changed since then, but YouTube’s growth remains… → Read More

May 15th, 2013

YouTube Sends Cease-And-Desist Letter To Microsoft Over Windows Phone App

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Well, that was fast: Just about a week ago, Microsoft released a YouTube app for its Windows Phone 8 platform. And today, YouTube is telling Microsoft remove it, saying that the app violates its terms of service → Read More

May 15th, 2013

YouTube Expands Live Access To All Partners In Good Standing With 1,000 Subscribers Or More

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YouTube’s live offering took a big step forward today, with the announcement that access to the feature will soon be available to a large number of its partners. While YouTube Live was previously only available to a handful of handpicked channels and partners, the feature will now be rolled out to any YouTube channel in good standing with more than 1,000 subscribers.

The opening up of YouTube… → Read More

May 9th, 2013

YouTube Tiptoes Toward Paywalls With The Launch Of Channel Subscriptions, But The Ads Play On

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In an effort to provide its partners with an alternative revenue stream, YouTube announced today that it is officially launching a pilot program that enables its video stars to charge subscription fees to access their channels. Subscriptions will begin at $0.99/month, and every channel will be able to offer a 14-day free trial and discounted yearly rates. YouTube gives the examples of Sesame… → Read More

April 29th, 2013

Major League Baseball Brings Archives, Highlights And Live Streaming Games To YouTube (But Not In The U.S.)

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Major League Baseball has always been very strict about its content appearing on YouTube and other video streaming sites. Peruse YouTube for highlights from your favorite players and teams, and you’ll find it nearly impossible to find quality footage. As soon as a clip from a game goes up on YouTube, it’s taken down. Up until now, it’s just a collection of slideshows and footage uploaded from… → Read More

April 26th, 2013

As It Focuses On Content ID And Monetization, ZEFR Signs UMG, Sony Music, Ultra Music, And NASCAR

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It’s been about nine months since Movieclips rebranded as ZEFR to provide content ID and monetization tools to publishers distributing or claiming their content on YouTube. Today, the startup is announcing its first big customers, signing up big-name music labels like UMG, Sony Music, and Ultra Music, as well as NASCAR. → Read More

April 22nd, 2013

Psy’s “Gentleman” Hits New YouTube Record With 38M Views In One Day

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“Gangnam Style” was the first video to hit 1 billion views on YouTube, a milestone it reached last December. Though arguably less catchy, Psy’s followup video “Gentleman,” a unique blend of pounding beats and fart jokes rumored to be an elaborate commercial for Candy Crush Saga, is now also breaking records on YouTube. The video-sharing site announced that “Gentleman” has set the record for the… → Read More

April 15th, 2013

YouTube Adds “Tape Mode” To Select Videos In Celebration Of Video Casette Recorder’s 57th Birthday

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There isn’t much to miss about old-school VHS tapes. They are fuzzy, show static, have bad audio, and are generally difficult to navigate around — remember having to hold down the button on the VCR to rewind your favorite movies?

Perhaps the only thing about VHS tapes worth reminiscing over was the feeling of opening that giant plastic VHS cover of my favorite Disney films. → Read More

April 12th, 2013

Code In Twitter Music’s Placeholder Page Shows Web Interface, Track Purchasing, Charts And Service Integrations

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Since we have nothing much to go on other than a static landing page for Twitter #music, some folks didfurther inspection within the CSS on the login page, and certain features and integrations became apparent. We’ve reached out to Twitter to confirm what we’ve seen, and we’ll update our story once we hear back. Until then, here’s what can be taken from the styling code… → Read More

April 1st, 2013

YouTube Co-Founder Teases Upcoming Video Site MixBit, A Destination For Collaborative Video Creation

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YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley used an April Fools’ joke to promote his upcoming new product, a video-focused site called MixBit that emphasizes collaborative video creation, rather than trying to compete with YouTube for a viewing audience. Very little has been revealed about MixBit as of yet, beyond the landing page which allows people to sign up for notifications about its upcoming launch, but… → Read More

March 31st, 2013

YouTube Announces That It Has Been An 8-Year Contest, Will Shut Down On April 1 To Determine The Winner

Bad news, guys. YouTube is shutting down.

The platform launched eight years ago, and some of us have gotten so distracted by YouTube videos that we’ve forgotten that the whole thing is actually a competition. Or, YouTube never actually mentioned that it is a competition. Either way, that competition, called YouTube, is coming to a close. → Read More

March 24th, 2013

Recent YouTube, Veoh Copyright Infringement Rulings Help To Unpack Safe Harbor Guidelines

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Editor’s note: Sid Venkatesan is an IP partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. James Freedman is an associate in Orrick’s IP group and a recent Stanford Law School graduate.

Online content providers and aggregators are well aware of the potential penalties that can result from a copyright infringement lawsuit. In addition to being expensive to litigate, a copyright lawsuit can… → Read More

March 21st, 2013

Rumblefish, Soundtrack Licensing Partner To YouTube And Others, Buys Catalogik To Improve Music Search

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A note of consolidation in the world of digital music: Rumblefish, a company that works with the likes of YouTube, Amazon, Vimeo, Facebook and Slideshare to let users add licensed soundtracks to their digital creations, is today announcing the acquisition of Catalogik, a platform to help find and monitor the use of specific digital tracks. → Read More

March 20th, 2013

YouTube Announces That It Has Hit One Billion Monthly Users, Which Is Roughly Ten Super Bowl Audiences

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Today, YouTube announced that it has hit a billion monthly users, which is an extremely insane metric. We know that YouTube is the go-to place for silly, interesting and important videos, but these numbers are something that even TV networks dream of. The great part for YouTube is that this means that online video ad spend will go up since the eyeballs appear to be ready, willing and able. → Read More

March 14th, 2013

Foundation: Chad Hurley Talks Collaborative Social Content and Hints at a New Video Platform

In today’s episode of my Foundation series, I talk with Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube, and founder of AVOS. Chad talks about life after YouTube, hints at his latest ambition in the video collaboration space and recalls one very important breakfast meeting at Denny’s. → Read More

March 5th, 2013

YouTube To Launch Music Subscriptions

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YouTube plans to launch a music subscription service later this year, to allow people to listen to tracks online, and to possibly cut out the ads that precede each video for subscribers, according to Fortune. The largest storehouse of streaming video, YouTube relies on selling banner ads on the site and running short clips before each video, giving a cut back to record companies. YouTube has… → Read More

March 1st, 2013

YouTube Lays Easter Egg In Tribute To Harlem Shake Meme

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In one of Google’s funnier Easter Eggs, users have a fun surprise awaiting them on YouTube. Conducting a YouTube search for “do the Harlem shake” initiates a UI-style Harlem Shake on the world’s biggest video sharing platform.

The dance starts with the YouTube logo doing the classic back-and-forth seen in the beginning of most Harlem Shake videos (more often than not, by a solo dancer wearing a… → Read More

February 28th, 2013

Google Updates YouTube iPhone And iPad App With ‘Send To TV’ Feature, The Google TV Equivalent Of AirPlay

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Google issued an update for its iOS application today that adds the “Send to TV” feature to its apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The feature allows you to quickly and easily pair your mobile phone with select TVs, making it possible to play and control video from the app on your television set. → Read More

February 20th, 2013

YouTube Partners With Gengo And Translated.net To Make Ordering Paid Caption Translations Easier

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YouTube just announced that it has partnered with Gengo and Translated.net, two popular translation services, to give its users a more streamlined process to get their video captions translated by professionals. Publishers can start the translation process from the YouTube interface, get estimates for how long the translation will take and how much it will cost, but they will still need to… → Read More

February 13th, 2013

YouTube Opens A Production Space In Tokyo To Help Creators Make Better Videos

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Over the past few years, YouTube has been dramatically increasing the resources that it provides to the creative community that uploads videos on its platform. Today it expanded that effort in Japan, where it’s opened a new production facility that will be open to select YouTube partners, providing them with advanced equipment and training to improve their videos. → Read More

February 13th, 2013

YouTube Files Appeal Against Regulator In Russia Over Content Blocked By New Firewall

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Google this week fired off one of the first high-profile tests of Russia’s controversial new firewall — erected November 1, 2012 to block child porn, drugs and suicide content; but seen by critics as a route for the government to block whatever else it chooses. Google’s YouTube operation in Russia has filed an appeal against the Russian regulator for blocking YouTube content. The appeal, filed on… → Read More

February 8th, 2013

TPB AFK, The Pirate Bay Documentary, Is Available Now On YouTube

The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard is now available for viewing on YouTube. The entire one and a half-hour movie just premiered in Europe and is also available for download on the Pirate Bay. → Read More

January 18th, 2013

An Unlikely Tech Hub, Utah Shows Its YouTube Prowess

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Editor’s note: Jesse Stay is Author of Google+ Marketing For Dummies and the upcoming book, I’m on Facebook — Now What??? 2nd Edition. He currently serves as Director of Social Media for Deseret Digital Media. Follow him on Twitter @jesse. They call themselves “Utubers.” As budding filmmakers descend on Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, many other Utah-based… → Read More

January 14th, 2013

Pulse Gets More Personal, Lets Users Add Their Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr & Tumblr Feeds

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Pulse, the popular news-reading app for the Web and mobile, just announced that it is going beyond the standard news sources it currently features and is adding authenticated social feeds from social sites like YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr and Facebook to its app. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

YouTube’s Three-Plus Year Copyright Battle With German Music Rights Agency Rumbles On, As GEMA Breaks Off Negotiations

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A copyright dispute that has blocked German YouTube users’ access to certain music videos continues to rumble on with little sign of a resolution — despite being ongoing for more than three years already. Today GEMA, the German music royalties collection agency at the centre of the dispute, announced it has broken off its latest round of negotiations with YouTube. → Read More

January 3rd, 2013

YouTube Makes Your Phone A Remote Control By Pairing Its Mobile Apps With TVs From LG, Panasonic, Sony, And Others

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At CES, YouTube will be showing off mobile pairing with a number of new devices from manufacturers such as Bang & Olufsen, LG, Panasonic, and Sony. And it expects to have the same feature rolling out on other devices throughout the year, from manufacturers such as Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Vizio, and Western Digital, among others. → Read More

January 2nd, 2013

Microsoft Says Google Is Preventing It From Building A YouTube App For Windows Phone

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On Microsoft’s public policy blog today, Microsoft VP & Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner has a post complaining about YouTube’s lack of support for its mobile platform and how that affects users. Microsoft has been trying to get a proper YouTube app working, and has developed its own app to bring a high-quality experience to Windows Phone, but YouTube has prevented Microsoft from doing so. → Read More

December 30th, 2012

Pakistan’s YouTube Ban Is Lifted And Then Reinstated As Observers Worry About Internet Freedom

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Pakistan lifted, then very quickly reinstated its ban on YouTube after a few hours when efforts by the government to filter out blasphemous material provided unsuccessful. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had ordered the video sharing site blocked in September after YouTube refused to remove the low-budget anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims.” Access was restored for a few hours on Saturday… → Read More

December 22nd, 2012

Tired Of Mean And Nasty YouTube Comments? The YuleTube Browser Extension Will Fix That

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If you’ve ever gone “deep” into the nastiness that the YouTube commenting section can be, then you know that it’s not a pretty place. Depending on the type of content you’re visiting, fights will break out, mothers will be dragged into the conversation and it’s just not fun to be around. Who are we kidding? No matter what type of content it is, a YouTube… → Read More

December 21st, 2012

YouTube Launches Android API, Letting Developers Natively Embed Videos With Captions, Ads, And Fullscreen Playback

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YouTube today has announced the release of its Android API, providing more native functionality for developers who wish to build video into their apps for Android phones and tablets. The API, which was announced at Google I/O in June, could pave the way for more interesting video-related apps that leverage YouTube videos. → Read More